A wanderer's blog...“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free. ” - Arthur Schopenhauer

Sunday, December 20, 2009

OMG, this is such a difficult post to organize!!! Nonetheless, i made it, haha.

Heading up to Flinders Range National Park organized by AUMC (Adelaide university Mountaineering Club).

Wondering how far it is from Adelaide??? It’s 450++ km from Adelaide CBD, haha.

Flinders Ranges National Park is renown for its rugged mountain ranges, spectacular gorges, creeks lined with River Red Gums and abundant wildlife.

This 94,908 hectare park is one of South Australia's most popular tourist destinations. It's world renowned for its geological history, Aboriginal rock art sites, impressive fossil remains, and ruins of early European settlement. It is home to some of South Australia's most fascinating natural attractions including Wilpena Pound.(http://www.southaustralia.com/FlindersRangesNationalPark.aspx)

Holy cow, all of us gathered in Uni usual AUMC place, a bit of intro among each other. Then it’s a mad mad drive all the way up to Flinders Range National Park continously for 6-7hrs stopping only for dinner and petrol.

Two car drove up first while another followed later in the night. I’m with Jono and Nicole in Mellisa wagon!!!! Dun look down at that poor condition of the car, it’s as reliable as your toyota or at least proton, haha. THough this car’s exhaust pipe made loud noise, we could still zzz in his car which Jono found ironic, haha.

It’s my 1st longest ride in Aus so far and it’s just full of fun along the way, chatting, getting to know each other, bout AUMC, Australia…etc.

Basically depart at 5 ish and reached at 10-11pm?? haha. Drove through Port Augusta, and saw the huge thunderstorm building up, we were all like: SHit, this is not good at all, haha. Weather forecast was not at our side for this trip. However, as we drove deeper into the dry arid land of South Australia, the skies started to change and stars began to appear, haha. The road was windy and going up and down hills, passing through many small towns.

One thing i came to realize and learned – you must obey the driving speed every time you see one. You have to gradually slow down your car to 20km/hr when you drive through the town. And i think Aussie police are pretty efficient in catching drivers that break the rules, because all of them obey the rules very well.

We all drove at our own speed, and relied on the map to navigate. It took half hr ish to find the camping ground entrance – willow spring as it was so foggy that night!!! Everywhere looked the same.

Luckily we are not walking, haha. It’s another ~5-10mins drive to the real campground through the rugged terrain. Set up our camp once we reached, as i borrowed my tent from my co-supervisor, i don’t really know how to setup mine as the design is different from the one i setup before, haha. Felt helpless that time as i couldn’t work it out, in adddition, it’s dark and i only have a bright enough torch (really felt the need to get a head torch), luckily Jono offered to help, then only i realized how the tent work, haha. THANX JONO!!!

Have a bit of supper and then chatting in the dark, haha. I could only listen throughout most of the conversation as there were heaps that i’m trying to understand and digest e.g places i never heard off, rich vocab, names, skills, …etc, but it was good, listening helped me know more so that i can join their conversation more later. Slowly one by one head off to zzzz.

Woke up ard 8ish next morning, some were already making breakfast further down a table. We realized we camp at the wrong site, we were supposed to camp at the designated flat ground but without any tree shade, less pebbles for easier tent setup. Still we did not change our location.

This is the toilet :). It’s not a very good one, but …..considered good enough to have one.

Headed down to our destination after breakfast. This is where the trail starts.

Eventually you can be fly up to get an aerial view of Flinders range and Wilpena pound if you pay, haha.

See the red arrow?? That’s where we are heading – the highest peak in Flinders Range (1171m) offering stunning view of famous Wilpena Pound.

It was a fairly easy flat trail at the beginning and walking among gum trees and some pines.

As we walked further, sights of the flinders range began to appear and we saw our first sight of St. Mary peak. The weather doesn’t look so promising as it’s quite cloudy, haha.

Walking among the pines, like this part :)

Slowly the easy part ended and the hard part began, from here onwards, it’s steep way all the way up!!!! Started to regret that i didn’t buy a pair of good hiking BOOTS!!! Because the boots are better for your foot and leg in this kind of rocky terrain as it stabilizes your foot better.

WE gained elevation pretty fast as these ppls are PROs and speed demons!!! Jesus, i can hardly catch up with them. Perhaps this was my 1st long steep hike in Australia without any training. It was considered HARD for me in the speed they were ascending!!!!

The views i saw kept me gambatteh all the way, haha.

The lovely couple, Jane and Derek (the AUMC president). Even Jane was better than me, haha. Thanks to Derek for waiting for me, haha and telling me to climb at my own speed as trying to catch up is gona make you exhausted faster. Everytime i took a bit of time to rest and looked up, they were like tiny ants still diligently climbing up, OMG!!!!!

Finally we climbed the 1st part, and the sight of St. Mary peak seems quite near, but ever since MT. Kinabalu trip, i learned not to trust my eyes in judging the distance, i knew it’s still a fair bit of ascend. A lot of times, it’s near only if you can fly up vertically, otherwise, you have to loop around to get to the peak.

We stopped for a rest, woooh, it was so windy on the other side of the mountain.

We started our hike again……

The views from this point onwards was just simply SPECTACULAR!!!!

Trust me, it ain’t easy to reach this point at their super speed!!!! I was the last to reach the peak, haha. Am glad to hear their words of “ Eddie, YOU made it!!!!”, haha.

As we reached, too bad the peak was TOO foggy…, we could barely see any further away. We have to wait for the fog to clear away and then quickly grab our chance to snap as many pics as you could, haha. Luckily the weather only drizzle a bit on our way, otherwise it was all fine, which was considered a blessing :)

Nicole staring across in the left pic, and many others hidden behind the rocks from the strong wind.

Slowly the fog cleared out, like a snail crawling away from the peak but came a lot more behind, haha. As if we could only see bits and bits of the views at a time.

Looking across the front horizon.Isimply LOVE this photo of Campbell along with the magnificient Flinders range!!!! Lucky to shot this photo :)

My AUMC trip organizer – Alex (the one with beanie on). He is such an experienced climber and adventurer!!! Lucky to have know him!!! THANX to him that i get to see the world famous Flinders and Wilpena Pound, otherwise, i really have no idea when will i ever have the chance!!!!

Campbell and Alex off the cliff edge!!!

I love this photo too, as it showed a good contrast of how gigantic are the rocks, haha.

Jono and Nicole trying to setup their camera for group photo on the peak :)

Don’t know why my face looked like shit in this photo, lol. Must be the wind, haha!!!

Descending…

The rocky vegetation along the mountain…

WE eventually climb another rock on our way down, haha.

Jane taking photos of us on the rock from bottom.

Another pic i love!!!! Looking back at this photo, reminded me how nice it is to hike in Flinders and Wilpena Pound!!!!

Campbell, Derek and Jane trying to do some bouldering, haha (photo on the bottom left). They are all PROs in rock/wall climbing especially Derek!!!!

Can you see the tiny ppl descending in the pic below???

Last view of St. Mary peak, haha. We decided to do a loop back to Wilpena instead of going back the same way we came, and altogether the hike to St.Mary peak and back to the info centre loop = 21KM!!!!!! Jesus christ, these guys are machines, hahha, but me too agreed lar to the idea, as i get the chance to trek through Wilpena Pound :)

Trekking through the lowland scrubs across Wilpena Pound, AMAZING!!!!! It’s just so beautiful everywhere!!!

Oh god, another 9.8km???!!!!!!!! Jesus christ, lol

Just hope the whole trek back to the info centre looks like this all the way!!!!

After this dried creek where we rested, the landscape TOTALLY CHANGED!!!!

The lovely spring flowers entertaining me all the way, haha (Pic at bottom left).
Now i guessed you know what i meant by total change of landscape!!!!! (pic at bottom right)

The landscape change is due to this part of the pound has been a European settlement in history. Can’t remembered exactly what were planted here, but eventually the plant grew well here, then the nutrient slowly fades, droughts, the people left the pound. Not sure are they any people still living within the pound not and perhaps used for grazing.

Love the beautiful gum tree (pic at left) with the blue blue sky as backdrop!!!

OMG, can you read that??? We were walking for ages at a considerably fast pace and there’s still 4.2km?? hahahhahha.
This trek through Wilpena Pound is part of the FAMOUS South AUstralia’s longest trail –Heysen’s trail.

Alex and Brad climbing the tree, haha.

Our campfire on the 2nd nite, hehe. REally nice to gather around with all of them, though again i’m doing the part as listener most of the time, haha. I enjoyed a lot, learned to BBQ marshmallow!!!! Something they do by just picking long twigs and stuck the marshmallow at the end and bbq it untill it melts inside, of coz making sure not to burn it (though some like it burned), haha.

Next day, it’s Bunyeroo Gorge!!! Driving out again, this time i managed to snaps heaps of driving photos along the dirt road as i’m sitting in the front seat in Jono’s car again. From dirt road to seal road to dirt road, full of FUN!!!! Especially Jono is pretty much a qualified dirt road driver, haha, he do dirt road car racing when he have time!!!!

Just love these views taken along the way!!!! Seen many of similiar photos from Documentaries but this time, with my own eyes live!!!! SO COOOOOOOOOL!!!!

Jono is such funny person to hang out with, looked at his wagon, going through holes and splashing through pool of dirt water, haha and he doesn’t mind at all, hahha. His wagon is pretty much a 4WD, haha.

Started our walk……this walk was meant to be more leisure after yesterday's long hike, haha.

The walk was not bad, one get to see the tall gorge surrounding you!!! And the different rock structures. Still they were walking quite fast, but the slowly breaking up into groups, some walked faster and some slower, which was good, as i have more time to capture photo of this pretty flower (pic at bottom left), hehe.

Walked to the end of the trail, unfortunately the next part is not allowed entry, i think is for cattle grazing or something like that. Hence, we have to walked back after having a light lunch.

Didn’t bother to look at the map, as traveling with these PROs is just SAFE!!!

After the gorge, we packed our stuff, and it’s time to head back to Adelaide, end of our AMAZING trip!!! Though i hope to see the Bunyeroo valley, but we just don’t have time, till next time then, haha.

Stopping at servo for petrol (Aussies like to add an O to the end of a lot of words, to make everything end with an O, like Arvo (afternoon)….others i forgot, but definitely there are plenty, haha). Campbell, Cameron, Nicole and Brad were just amazed at Jono’s car, haha (pic at bottom left).

During our drive back, we opted a longer but less bz road with more to see – which is through one of the famous wine region of South Australia : Clare Valley which pass through Mt.Remarkable (southern Flinders range -pic at bottom left), while the others go back through Port Augusta. Though it’s not grape planting season, it’s the season for Canola flowers, haha. Saw quite a few fields of yellows Canola flowers!!! AWESOME!!!!

Me asking Jono to pull over for me to take photos, haha. In fact, this pic looks nice with the yellow field of canola and his sexy wagon, haha.

Reached Adelaide night time, very tired, but definitely an unforgettable trip for me!!!!! Many thanks to AUMC, to Alex, to Jono and others!!!!
Glad to have meet you all :)

2 comments:

wahhhhh everything was so cool!!! the treks looks amazing... the view also nice... do different from malaysia... would wanna challenge it someday...:D make me wanna take a few weeks break there and go do all these hahah